If you would like to provide flowers in the sanctuary for Sunday morning services, please contact Gwen Messer at 828-506-8370, or Janice in the church office to be placed on the calendar.
December Calendar
Pastor Appreciation and Farewell Party
YOU ARE INVITED to a pastor appreciation and farewell party on Sunday, December 10 at 4:00 p.m. in the MFC. Join us as we celebrate the Mathis family and show them our love and appreciation for the many years they have shared with us.
Let Heaven and Nature Sing!
You are invited to a wonderful celebration of the true meaning of Christmas on Wednesday, December 20, at 6;00 p.m., in the MFC. 1st Explorers and children of the church are working hard to prepare for an outstanding hour of skits, Scripture reading, and music. “Let Heaven and Nature Sing” will make you want to sing along with the enthusiastic voices of our children. Please come! Doors open at 5:45 p.m.
The Christmas Play
The air in the Sunday School room was charged with the sounds of children talking, giggling, and rehearsing their lines. Occasionally, a child would peek out the door to see who was in the audience. Moms tied the robes that had been borrowed from Dads’ closets on feisty shepherds while another Mom worked at straightening the wings and halos of would-be angels. The Wise Men looked for the gifts they had misplaced while Mary clutched a favorite baby doll wrapped in a handmade afghan. Joseph stayed as far away from Mary as he could until it was absolutely imperative that he stand beside her at the manger scene.
Then the lights dimmed in the small sanctuary and the children were ushered in when it was time for them to appear. A few lines were misquoted and sometimes an actor needed a prompt from the director but when the full cast was assembled in the Nativity tableau, it was a precious sight for all the people gathered there. Grandparents beamed from the audience and parents were proud (and relieved) that their children had been part of this special event.
What a magical night -- the Christmas play when I was growing up! Many of you know what I am talking about because you grew up being a part of this annual tradition at your church. Sometimes it was a contemporary piece that reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas and we would be dressed in regular clothes. These plays usually required more script memorization than the Nativity scene which was often narrated by a teen or an adult. How we worked at remembering our lines!
If music wasn’t part of the play, there was always carol singing afterward and we grew to know “Joy to the World”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “We Three Kings” and all the other songs by heart.
At the conclusion of the program, Santa made an appearance and everyone got a treat bag filled with candy, peppermint sticks, nuts, and an orange. Happy and contented, we packed into our cars and headed home -- another Christmas Play behind us.
Church Christmas plays with children are still magical to me, but, as an adult, I see them in a new light. I’ve been the mom behind the scenes, the one making a costume, or helping organize. A fond memory of this experience was when Andrew was three years old and the parents of preschoolers at Sylva FBC had to dress their child as a stable animal for a Nativity play. We finally decided that Andrew would be a dalmation. Now, I don’t think a dalmation was present for the first Christmas but Andrew did a good job watching over Baby Jesus. As a parent and now Children’s Ministry Director, I am always excited to see children perform and speak and sing in public. I also realize how much work goes into something like a Christmas play.
That’s why I am grateful for Marina and Tom Graham who are leading our 1st Explorers and children from church in the Christmas production “Let Heaven and Nature Sing”. It will be held on Wednesday, December 20, at 6:00 p.m., in the Mission and Fellowship Center. Marina has been working for 3 months to prepare an outstanding hour of skits, Scripture reading, and music with the children. Tom is lending his musical talent to add traditional songs of Christmas to the program. You’ll laugh at the comedic adventures of the angels, you’ll be comforted by the familiar Scriptures, and you’ll want to sing along with the enthusiastic voices of the children. Come and relive the magic of children telling the “old, old story of Jesus and His love”. You will be glad you added this to your holiday season!
Thank you, Marina and Tom!
Family Christmas Fun Event Was Great Fun!
Thank you to the families who participated in Sunday's Family Fun Event. After a pizza, salad, and dessert lunch, we made Sock Snowmen, Skinny Popsicle Snowmen ornaments, a Baby Jesus ornament, and Ojo de Dios ornaments. There was a Christmas scavenger hunt won by Lucie and Wyatt (everyone got prizes!), a Guess the Number of Peppermints in the Jar (won by Chris Moore, and a Pin the Features on Frosty game designed by Andrew Beck. Families also received the Advent devotional packet, "Ordinary Wonder", to use during the next 4 weeks. A great time was had by all!
Left: A blindfolded Strider Drum adds arms to Frosty under Andrew Beck's direction.
Sunday School and Childcare is Available!
Thank You!
A big “thank you” to G.W. Revis for donating many of Pat’s lovely Christmas decorations to the Church to use in making our Sanctuary so beautiful. The children also used ornaments to decorate the Christmas tree in the MFC. This is a beautiful way to honor Pat’s memory and will be enjoyed for many years. Thank you, G.W.!
Passport Kids Update
If you plan to go to Montreat College for Passportkids, June 30 – July 3, your $100 deposit is due as soon as possible. We have a limited amount of space and want to be sure you get in!
Mission Moment 12.6.23
Lita Sample
CBF Field Personnel in Fremont, CA
Prayers are often said in hopes of asking God for something specific. Sometimes we pray for direction. And a few times, we ask for God to give us a word on what we need to do. This is what I prayed for months before our Easter Egg hunt. How many Afghans will you bring to us at this special event? In my logical mind, I planned for 250 people. I hoped that maybe we would have 200 in total to come. Then, in my doubt, I actually wondered if 100 would come to our Easter event. It was a Christian holiday. Why would they want to come?
As we prepared for the 250, in faith that God would bring that many and as we continued to pray for the Afghans we would invite, God revealed something surprising. God said to prepare for 250 CHILDREN! That would bump up our overall total to hundreds more! We reserved four picnic areas near each other to have a great big grassy area for all the crafts, games, face painting, and six hunts we would have. Halal meat was on the invitation to be sensitive to our Afghan friends. I have seen God work in miraculous ways in bringing people and children to events when we had been unsure. I knew God would work again.
Okay, God, we will be ready. The weeks before the event, as we made so many visits to families, texted, emailed, left flyers, and sent hundreds of invitations, we were encouraged as so many said they would be there. The day of the hunt, we had Afghans pouring into the large picnic areas we had decorated. We loved connecting and serving and seeing the joy on the faces of Afghans who may not have had reason to be joyous in a long time. We had people being prayed over, reading the Christian literature in their own language, hearing the Easter story. It was an amazing day and God was in the midst of it all. At the end of our time, we went home exhausted but happy. We counted the registration cards and the lists of volunteers who signed in to help.
Here’s how God blessed in numbers: 74 volunteers; 8,000 eggs; 103 families; and amazingly—exactly 250 kids and 493 people—all Afghans! God is so good. God must have been delighted to see our amazement at God’s hand. So now, we pray in thanksgiving. Who would have ever guessed that around 500 Afghans would come together to celebrate Easter and hear the good news? Only God could do such an amazing thing and we praise God for His greatness!